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Sunday, December 4, 2016

Fighting, Screaming and Yelling all the way.



Kevin Baker made me do it. My good friend Kevin dragged me, screaming, fighting, and yelling all the way into the 21st Century. Now I am the proud owner of an iPhone 6 Plus. I haven't completely forsaken my Nokia tiny palm mobile. Now I have two phones, but I have taken so long to step up my game and I really don't have a good excuse. I simply have not felt the drive to go modern all these years.

Kevin assures me that it will change my life. I think Kevin was embarrassed by being associated with a friend who was so behind the times when he is this super, on-the-cutting-edge kind of guy. When the mobile phone was first introduced I was steadfast. I would not have one because I just didn't want to always be available. Before the introduction of the mobile the best anyone could do was to have a long extension cord that allowed mother to be hanging out the clothes while talking to a friend.

With a mobile phone our stress level automatically rises because the phone might ring at any time. I was having a business lunch with a lady when she suddenly leaned down, picked up her handbag and held it to her head. " I thought I heard my phone ringing," she said. I thought she had suddenly lost her mind.

Humans were not structured to always be instantly contactable. It seems that the ringing of the phone must be replied to right away. Whatever we are doing when the phone rings we drop that and respond.  That's the way it has always been. I have been in a long line at the bank. The teller is hard pressed to serve us, when the telephone rings. She ignores us to take the call. I just wish she could give me money through the phone.

We see it depicted in movies where a couple are making love and the phone rings. "Just a minute. I got to take this." What! Are you crazy? That's when you know you are sick. Go to a doctor now.

The good thing about having waited so long before moving up to a Smart Phone is that I have seen what bad and deadly habits can be formed if you allow them to start. I have made myself some promises that I will keep. Not to do so will be to complicate my life to no end.

With my little Nokia I would carry it around in my bag all day, and if it didn't ring I never touched it. I read my e-mails when I got home and was sat in front of my laptop. If I needed to send an urgent message I can only think of two times when it was so urgent that I went to a Locutorio to do it.

Promise number 1.When and wherever I sit down to eat I will not take out my phone and place it on the table. I will continue to not answer it while eating.

Promise number two: I will continue to not answer an incoming call while driving. I could ask Siri to read me the text of an incoming Whatssup message, but I won't. My attitude is that there is absolutely nothing in my life so urgent that it can't wait until I get to a convenient place to pull off the road, shut down the motor, and then see what all the fuss is about.

Promise number three: I will never walk and stare into my phone to send a text or read a message from someone. Perhaps I will take an incoming call while walking, if I can figure how to do that, but I will never fall into the habit of not being aware of my surroundings because I am totally concentrated on my phone. People have walked in front of trams and oncoming traffic and been killed.

It is true that when I have been expecting an important call I have taken my mobile into the bathroom with me, and I have had perfectly comfortable conversations while sitting down in there, but at least if I continue to do so my conversations will not be under the Face Time app.

Promise number Four: This could be the most important promise of all, is that you will never see a picture of the meal I'm about to eat, taken by me with my iPhone. Never! Never! Never!

I am perfectly aware that we all hold in the palm of our hands the most powerful device in communication, and I am a long way away from discovering the full capabilities of what it can do for me. I am quickly becoming comfortable with it and I am starting to feel like a pro. But here's the thing: I am in charge of it, not the other way round. I tell this to Kevin and he sniggers. He says that everybody does it. Well, not me Kev. I am one of a kind.

Stop laughing Kev.

Copyright (c) 2016
Eugene Carmichael